A Writer in Panama

An American who cannot afford to live in his own house escapes to Panamá. Finds himself in Heaven - a beautiful land with wonderful people - but finds corrosive civilization coming ever nearer this fragile alien world. In this travel memoir, novelist James David Audlin tells of his adventures in one of the world's last frontier lands. Here one still sees Ngäbe Buglé people, in their bare feet and traditional finery, walking through the village as if they are visiting from another planet.
Here descendants of the Conquistadores still ride horseback on dirt roads far too rutted for the new arrivals, the gringos, to negotiate in their big SUVs. Here in the temblor-shaken Tierras Altas, in the shadow of the great Barú volcano at the center of the world - here, for a while yet, there is a respite from the worldwide flood of commercialism, bigotry, arrogation, and greed. But it will not last much longer.